Riding Class (11 page)

T
HE NEXT MORNING
Pine Hollow was aflutter with excitement. Members of Horse Wise were grooming their horses even before Red had a chance to feed them grain. May Grover arrived with her pony, Macaroni, in her father’s horse van, and several other Horse Wise members also trailered their own horses in. Every cross-tie and spare stall was in use.

The Saddle Club waited eagerly for Emily. Even though they had stayed late at the barn the night before, grooming, they had still arrived early in the morning. Carole had helped Lisa and Stevie trim their horses’ muzzles, bridle
paths, and ears. Lisa was amazed at what a difference the trim made in Prancer. She looked elegant and refined.

But not, Lisa realized ruefully, as elegant or as refined as Veronica’s Danny. Veronica must have been working with Danny all week long, because only concentrated grooming would make a horse’s coat shine so bright. Danny looked like liquid silver. His head was trimmed, his mane was braided, and his hooves were shining. Veronica’s expensive tack shone with polish, and Veronica herself was elegantly turned out in gleaming boots and dove-gray breeches.

Lisa sighed. She knew that, at least in this competition, good looks weren’t important. She knew that she and Prancer looked neat and clean. Still, she couldn’t help being just a bit envious of Veronica.

“Hey! Lisa!” Lisa turned. Emily was waving from the entrance of the stable. “Where do I put P.C.? This place is packed!”

Lisa called Stevie and Carole over. “I’d like to stay out of her way,” Emily added, pointing to Veronica.

“Good idea,” Stevie said. “How much work do you have to do with P.C.?”

“Not much,” Emily replied. “I put his saddle on before we got here. All I have to do is take him out of the trailer, take off his shipping wraps, and bridle him.”

“Let’s leave him in there for now,” Carole suggested. “This place is kind of crazy. Max is going to explain the
rules in a minute, and then I bet all the little kids are going to get up on their horses. I’ve heard them talking—they all want to go first. We can wait until they clear out before we get ready.”

Everyone agreed with Carole. The Saddle Club settled their groomed horses back in their stalls. “Starlight looks beautiful,” Emily said admiringly. “And so do Belle and Prancer. The most I can say for P.C. is that he’s clean.”

They went to visit P.C. in his trailer. He thrust his stubby, shaggy head out the trailer door and whinnied to greet them. Emily rubbed his head affectionately, and Lisa fed him a carrot.

Then they heard Max call for order. They hurried to gather around him.

“Welcome to the First Annual Max Regnery Junior Handy Hunter Trail Competition,” he began.

“Blow your horn, Max,” yelled a rider in the crowd.

Max laughed, but he didn’t have the hunting horn he’d blown during last week’s meeting. “We’ll get started here in just a few minutes,” he said. “I understand that some of you”—he glanced meaningfully at May, Jasmine, and the other younger riders—“are quite impatient to be off. I’m going to send you out as I would for a cross-country course, one rider every four minutes. The course is timed. I have it set at a working trot pace, and if you go over the time allowed, you will incur penalties. The purpose of the time
penalties is to reward those of you whose horses complete the stations quickly and move boldly down the trail, and to penalize those of you whose horses are hesitant. I do
not
want you racing down the trail. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, Max,” they chorused.

“What did I just say?”

“No racing down the trail!”

“Very good,” said Max. “Please, all of you, ride at the speed at which you are comfortable. If any of the station judges sees you riding in an unsafe manner, you will be disqualified.

“If your horse backs up in front of an obstacle, that counts as a refusal and will be penalized, just like in a regular horse show,” he continued. “There will be ten stations on the trail, and two judges per station. The judges will give you penalty points for any faults your horse makes while it completes the station. The horse with the fewest accumulated points—the most perfect horse—wins.”

“Well,” The Saddle Club heard Veronica diAngelo say, “I think we know who that’ll be!”

“Please be courteous and welcoming to our judges,” Max said, ignoring Veronica. “Most of them are students in the state college’s equine studies program, and all of them are volunteering their time.

“I’m especially pleased to introduce you to one judge who is not a student,” Max concluded. “I’ve been very
proud to have her riding with us for the past few weeks. Not only is she a noted breeder of quarter horses, but she’s twice won the Mountain Centennial, one of the toughest endurance rides in the nation. Please meet Dr. Marian Dinmore!”

Dr. Dinmore stepped up to Max’s side and waved to the crowd. She winked at The Saddle Club when she saw them. “I want to die,” Stevie groaned.

“I told her to ride Patch,” Carole said in tragic tones. “The Mountain Centennial! That’s a race of over one hundred miles of mountain trail in a single day! It’s one of the most difficult horse races in the world!”

“I offered to show her how to groom,” Lisa remembered. She hid her face in her hands. “Oh, I’m so embarrassed.”

“You wanted to show her how to groom?” Emily cracked up. “That’s hilarious.”

“She said she wanted to learn how to ride English,” Carole recalled. “I just assumed she’d never ridden. I didn’t even ask about Western riding.”

Stevie shook her head. “We assumed a lot of things. We looked at her and decided that she didn’t look like a rider, so she probably wasn’t one.”

“I bet you won’t do that again,” Emily said cheerfully. “Good thing you’re not counting on winning this thing. Dr. Dinmore’s going to be annoyed with you!”

But Dr. Dinmore was still watching them, and laughing. “She thinks we’re funny,” Lisa realized. “She and Mrs. Reg have been laughing at us all along.”

“Better laughing than furious,” Carole said. “Emily, we’re not usually this stupid.”

“I know. Good thing, huh?”

The little kids clamored to start, and Max began sending them off. Once the commotion around the barn eased a little bit, The Saddle Club found an open set of cross-ties and helped Emily bring P.C. inside. They tacked up their horses.

Of the four of them, Carole and Starlight headed out first. Starlight felt fresh and frisky; Carole was glad to be riding him, and she was always happy to have a chance to test his skills. She concentrated, and they did well. Toward the end of the trail, at the eighth station, she was asked to ride Starlight across a “bridge.” This was really just several wooden planks, about six feet long, laid flat on the ground with hay bales on either side. The test was whether Starlight would walk calmly between the bales over a strange surface.

Starlight took one look at the planks and snorted. Carole patted him and walked him forward. Starlight snorted again, tucked himself together—and jumped the whole thing! He landed with his tail swishing, pleased with himself
Carole grabbed his mane when he jumped, and landed laughing. It was a pretty big mistake, but it was his only one.

Stevie went next. Belle caught the bit in her mouth and played with it. Stevie had more trouble settling her down than worrying about her going too slow. But once the obstacles began, Belle concentrated better, and she did well, too. Stevie’s worst moment came during the creek crossing, when Belle stopped and began to paw the water with her foreleg. Splash! Splash! Stevie was drenched.

“Move her forward!” one of the judges cried. “She’s going to roll!” Stevie urged Belle out of the water. The judges were laughing, and so was Stevie. Belle had never acted that way before, but it was funny. Stevie was very glad that Belle hadn’t rolled. It was much too cold for a dunking.

Veronica headed out just before Emily and Lisa, who came out of the stable as Veronica and Danny were riding away. Red appeared beside them and helped Emily into the saddle.

“Ready?” Max asked, consulting his watch. “You’re off!”

As arranged, Emily took the lead on P.C. She urged him into a fast trot. They knew that Emily was likely to be slow through some of the stations. She would have to make up time on the trail to avoid penalties.

“Don’t go faster than you want to,” Lisa called to her. Prancer was moving beautifully.

“I want to go faster than this!” Emily called back. “I want to gallop—I feel like I’m flying!” But she stayed in a trot.

They trotted through the field that had been wet two weeks before. It was much drier now. At the far end of it was the first station: a gate.

“Uh-oh,” Lisa murmured.

Emily shook her head. “I’d rather get it over with early,” she said. The gate had a wire loop closure rather than a chain and hook like the gate at Free Rein. This made it a little easier for Emily to grasp. She held it, and P.C. pushed the gate open. Then, while Lisa held her breath, P.C. pivoted in response to Emily’s leg. Emily shut the gate, dropped the loop in place, and raised her fist to Lisa in triumph. Lisa grinned and raised her fist back. She opened the gate, sent Prancer through, and went after Emily without bothering to close it. Glancing over her shoulder, Lisa could see the jump judge frowning as he shut the gate. But Lisa couldn’t stop to explain—Emily was already trotting.

Next P.C. jumped a hay bale and crossed the creek without fuss. He stepped neatly through a V-shaped figure and waited patiently while Emily retrieved a fake letter from a fake mailbox and handed it to the judge. He went calmly down a short stretch of steep downhill and stepped over the pole that was laid at the bottom. Lisa, following closely, watched the two of them with growing admiration.
Emily was as tough as nails, and P.C. was doing everything she asked.

Emily checked her watch. “Let’s make up a little more time,” she suggested.

“Fine,” Lisa said. “This is the flattest part of this trail.” They cantered until the next station. This was a difficult one: The judges asked Emily to back P.C. through an S shape laid out on the ground with a garden hose.

Lisa watched as Emily calmly switched her crop from one hand to the other, making P.C.’s hindquarters move from side to side the way they needed to. They didn’t make a mistake through the S. They hadn’t made a mistake yet.

P.C. walked calmly over the bridge that Starlight had jumped. He went up, over, and down a tiny banked jump. Emily looked back over her shoulder as she trotted him away. “That’s the ninth station. Maybe they won’t—”

“Don’t be so sure,” Lisa said. “I know Max.”

They came out of the woods very close to Pine Hollow and trotted along one of the pasture fence lines. There in front of them was the final station. Because they had made up so much time, they could see Veronica still there. It was the dismount and mount.

Lisa realized how clever Max had been to put this station last. It was a simple task for almost all of the riders, except those too short to mount easily, but by putting it so
close to the stable he had made it much harder. The horses would be impatient to get home. They wouldn’t be expecting their riders to dismount at the edge of the woods.

Veronica halted Danny smoothly. She dropped her feet from her stirrups, put both reins in her left hand, swung her right leg over the cantle of the saddle, and dropped to the ground in a crisp show dismount. She all but saluted the judges.

Danny mouthed his bit eagerly, looking toward the stable. As Veronica placed her foot in the stirrup to mount, Danny took a step forward. It was a small error, but it was still an error. Danny was not perfect after all.

Emily walked P.C. into the station. Lisa stood behind her and held her breath. This is what they’d worked so hard for.

Emily brought P.C. to a square halt before the judges. She put the reins in her right hand and rested that hand against the crest of P.C.’s mane. With her crop, she gently reached forward and pressed the side of P.C.’s neck.

P.C. sank to his knees.

He lay perfectly still. Emily carefully dropped her feet from their stirrups and ever so slowly slid her right leg across P.C.’s back. Balancing herself on his neck, she stood.

Emily added the flourish that Veronica had not. Dropping
her right arm straight to her side, she dipped her head to the judges in the slow, elegant salute of a world-class dressage rider. She was grinning from ear to ear.

Lisa found herself nearly shaking with excitement. Emily bent forward and eased her leg back across P.C.’s back. She nosed her feet into the stirrups. P.C. still didn’t move.

Emily gave him a brief hug before patting his neck again with her crop. He rose with all the grace of a circus elephant, and Emily trotted him across the finish line, her head held high.

“Wa-
hoooo!
” squealed a rider. Lisa recognized the voice; it could only be Stevie. She saw Stevie and Carole standing at the finish line, cheering. Several other riders were cheering, too.

“Under the time allowed!” Max announced, a giant smile on his face. Lisa wondered if he’d seen Emily’s dismount. “Good for you!” Max said. Lisa concluded that he had. She trotted Prancer toward home, giddy with pride for her friend.